Barnes still has plenty to learn to get where he needs to be for Raptors

TORONTO — There’s not much debate that Scottie Barnes has made considerable progress in his third professional season.

The Toronto Raptors star is on pace for career highs in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, blocks and scoring efficiency. He’s far from a perfect player, but his ability to affect games on both ends of the floor already puts him in some elite NBA company both currently and historically.

By every measure, his future is bright.

His head coach, Darko Rajakovic, has already said Barnes is not only the face of the Raptors franchise, but called him the future face of the league during his passionate outburst over some bad refereeing last month.

In more subdued tones, the people who run the Raptors believe some version of the same thing. They have convinced themselves that Barnes can be the best player on a championship-contending team, the star around which the moons rotate.

It all may prove to be true, and for the sake of the Raptors fan base, Rajakovic and the team’s front office, let’s hope so.

But let’s be very clear on one thing: the 22-year-old from West Palm Beach, Fla., has been handed a job he’s not yet qualified for, and at times, it shows.

Some background:

At the end of Monday night’s broadcast of Toronto’s blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Barnes was shown leaving the Raptors bench with seconds left in the fourth quarter and walking to the locker room by himself, having just finished playing one of his worst games of the season.

It wasn’t the greatest look in the world, but hardly a jersey-tearing, coach-ripping tantrum. Normally it would have passed without remark.

But it had a little more weight locally because early in the 2020-21 season,  when the Raptors were playing in Tampa, Pascal Siakam (now with the Indiana Pacers) left the bench after fouling out with 26 seconds left in what ended up being a five-point loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. At that time, Siakam was disciplined by the team and watched the Raptors' next game in street clothes. “[There’s] just a certain way we want to do things,” then-head coach Nick Nurse said at the time, “and everybody’s got to be a part of that, as simple as that.”

So on Tuesday at practice, it was obvious — based on precedent — that how the matter was going to be addressed was going to be front and centre.

Rajakovic did his part. He explained that he had met with Barnes that morning, got his version of why he left the bench — essentially he thought the game was over — and also touched on Barnes’ penchant for seemingly letting his emotions get the best of him in games, especially when the Raptors are losing or he’s playing poorly. Against San Antonio, Barnes could be seen — and not for the first time — failing to get back on defence, gesturing at referees and generally acting like a frustrated kid at times while shooting 3-of-15 from the floor, coughing up five turnovers and getting his shot blocked three times by San Antonio rookie star Victor Wembanyama.

It was a tough night all around.

“Obviously, he is learning what kind of effect he has on the team and teammates and everybody,” said Rajakovic. “He’s 22 years old. He's going for the first time in his life through this, being the face of a franchise, and he's emotional, but he also needs to learn how to channel those emotions… and that's another great learning opportunity for him… that doesn't mean it's never gonna happen again, I doubt that, but like, I believe that there's going to be less and less and much better handling those situations going forward.”

All good. We could have moved on with that — except when Barnes spoke after his coach, he seemed to either contradict Rajakovic’s version of events or have a different perspective entirely on the same conversation.

Barnes at first seemed to suggest the meeting Rajakovic referred to didn’t take place — “there was no conversation” — but then acknowledged that he had spoken with his head coach about the events of the previous night. He was light on specifics. “We talked about, you know, the game, that was really the primary thing,” Barnes said.

He eventually came around to talking about leaving the bench: “It was a bad look. It was a mistake on my part. If it affected (his team) in any way, it was a mistake by me.”

So, it’s all a little bit confusing and contributes to a molehill getting a little bigger than it needed to be. But big stars can make problems bigger or make them go away with how they deal with them publicly. In Barnes' first chance to turn a molehill into yesterday’s news, he somehow made it bigger than it had to be.

So that’s one issue.

But underlying all of it is that as well as Barnes has played this season, as his offensive responsibilities have grown since OG Anunoby and Siakam were traded, there’s a case the load is probably more than he’s ready for.

Almost by default, Barnes has vaulted to the top of opponents' scouting reports. Being named an all-star will do that for you. But Barnes has sometimes buckled under the weight. The Spurs are 24th in defensive efficiency for the season, but with rangy wing Jeremy Sochan living in Barnes’ jersey and Wembanyama, the NBA’s leading shot blocker, lurking and ready to help, the Raptors star was mostly flummoxed.

It was a similar case when the Oklahoma City Thunder’s defensive ace, Lu Dort, turned up the pressure on Barnes late in what ended up being a double-overtime loss for the Raptors. Barnes took just three shots in the fourth quarter and two extra frames, a stretch of nearly 20 minutes, and otherwise seemed out of sorts. In a blowout loss to the New York Knicks prior to that, his former teammate, Anunoby, helped limit Barnes to 4-of-15 shooting, while it was Kawhi Leonard slowing down Barnes in the fourth quarter of the Raptors' loss to the Los Angeles Clippers back in January.

These things happen. Great defenders can cause problems for even the best offensive players. But if Barnes is going to excel as the Raptors' franchise player, he’s going to have to be able to handle that kind of attention, and on the nights he can’t he’ll need to handle his emotions.

“It's more me being frustrated with myself and the way I'm playing,” said Barnes of his reactions on Monday night. “It's not really anything to do with anybody else. I'm just more frustrated on my part.”

Unfortunately for all involved, more frustrating nights likely are ahead. Over the past 15 games, the Raptors are 4-11 and have lost by 20 points or more six times. They have the worst net rating in the NBA over that stretch. They are almost certainly going to be bad for the remainder of the season, it’s just a matter of degree.

A lot has happened, granted. Significant trades, lengthy road trips and some injuries too. In the space of a few short weeks, the franchise has gone from intending to compete and hoping that Barnes' timeline would accelerate quickly enough that he could form a long-term on-court partnership with the likes of Anunoby and Siakam, to moving on without them.

The Raptors are now firmly in a rebuild, with an uncertain timeline. Barnes has been identified as the franchise’s north star, the light they can follow to navigate through the coming storms on and off the floor.

It’s a big job for a 22-year-old. Hopefully one of these days, he’ll be ready for it.